COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Cretaceous-Age Crustal Discontinuity in the Black Rock Desert Region of Northwest Nevada: Kinematic Link Between the Mojave-Snow Lake Fault...

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9814308 Wright Recent research along the western margin of North America has demonstrated large-scale dextral strike-slip faulting in the early Cretaceous along the central Sierra Nevada, and this fault system has been postulated to extend much further along the margin. However, present age constraints and geometric relationships to the north do not allow this to be tested. Prior work in the Black Rock Desert region of Northwest Nevada/southern Oregon has discovered evidence for large-displacement faulting that is a likely candidate for the northward continuation of the Mojave-Snow Lake fault. It appears to be aligned with the large but problematic Idaho Suture feature to the north. This research is a collaborative effort between research at Rice University and the University of Georgia, and will pursue this potential correlation by an integrated study of the distribution, kinematics and temporal evolution of early Cretaceous deformation in the Black Rock Desert. Results will be critical to tectonic reconstruction of the Mesozoic history of the western margin of North America.